PANHANDLING PROBLEM OVERSTATED, CRITICS SAY

Aggressive panhandling isn't a big problem downtown, a Victoria police
officer and a advocate for medical marijuana said following a recent
community forum on the issue.

The Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce held the forum to drum up support
for two controversial private member's bills that target aggressive
panhandlers and squeegee kids across the province.

While a Victoria MLA and a representative of Vancouver's business community
noted that panhandling affects business, Phillippe Lucas of the Vancouver
Island Compassion Society and Const. Rick Anthony of the Victoria police
had a different take.

"The perception is that it is a lot worse than it actually is," Anthony
said. He added that although citizens may feel unsafe walking downtown at
night, the police's empirical evidence don't suggest that it is unsafe.

Nonetheless, some Victoria police would welcome the new laws.

Core division head, Insp. Grant Smith, who also attended the forum, said,
"As far as I'm concerned, Mr. Mayencourt's legislation would help us out
tremendously with those few individuals in the downtown area that are
extremely aggressive and very difficult to handle."

The Safe Streets Act and the Trespass to Property Act, which are in their
second reading at the legislature, would make it illegal for people to
aggressively panhandle at bus stops, pay phones, bank machines and put an
end to squeegee kids.

The legislation would also make it an offence to dispose of needles and
used condoms in an unsafe manner and would afford shopkeepers the right to
bar repeat shoplifters or undesirable customers from their premises.

"If an individual wants to kick someone off their property, it would take
several days. Under this piece of legislation, it would take a phone call,"
said Vancouver-Burrard MLA Lorne Mayencourt, who put the bills forward in
May. Mayencourt drafted the proposed legislation at the request of his
constituents who saw the police crackdown in Vancouver's East End drive
crime into the West End.

The bills mimic similar legislation implemented in Ontario in 2000,
Mayencourt said.

"What happened in the case of Ontario... is that they used the law, but it
really only had to be used for two or three months because people began to
understand the perimeters and began to act accordingly," Mayencourt said.

Victoria-Beacon Hill MLA Jeff Bray said he was interested in what the
community had to say about the proposal because he said the number one exit
complaint for tourists coming to Victoria is about the number of panhandlers.

One of the speakers at the forum, Kathi Thompson, president of the Downtown
Vancouver Business Improvement Association said she noticed the number of
vacant stores in downtown Victoria.

"Once you have businesses leaving your downtown, it's very hard to get them
to come back. Is that the type of downtown you want?" Thompson asked.

Anti-poverty groups immediately objected to the law when it passed in
Ontario. They said it was a form of "poor-bashing" and saw their legal
protests rise to the highest courts in the province before finally being
overturned. Like in Ontario, not everyone agrees with the new legislation
in B.C.

Lucas, founder and director of the Vancouver Island Compassion Society,
said he thinks the bills are "a misguided way" of dealing with the real
issues with the province's homeless - mental illness, poverty, and addiction.

"I don't see how this sort of legislation is going to address any of those
issues," Lucas said after the forum. "My fear would be that if we allow any
shop owner to bar anyone at their own discretion, we're going to see a high
level of discrimination going on."

Chamber president Rebecca Grant said the legislation is just one tool for
business owners downtown to tackle the issues of the city's poor. Grant
said chamber members are very active in the community working with service
providers like the United Way, Cool-Aid, the Open Door, and the YM-YWCA to
try and tackle some of the root issues of poverty.

Bill Taylor, CEO of the Victoria YM-YWCA, said he has seen an honest
commitment from the chamber on poverty issues, particularly in the past
year, working "collectively and collaboratively" on issues of affordable
housing and other programs.

Grant said, "there are a lot of misconceptions about this being poor
bashing, or about getting these people out of our face, or about driving
the disadvantaged out of the downtown. It's not. It's about making it a
safer place for everyone downtown."

She reiterated that this legislation targets only those who choose to be
aggressive.

"The person that is behaving aggressively can stop the whole process at any
point, simply by behaving themselves," Grant said.